Owners of homes which are retrospectively judged to have fallen foul of regional planning rules can now be given just one month’s notice that council bulldozers are being sent in, as part of a crackdown on excessive development in one of Spain’s most popular regions.
A surge of foreign lifestyle buyers and investors has split the Spanish property market.
Sales are up 200% in some regions compared with 2009 – despite the Bank of Spain claiming that last year was the worst in a decade for foreign property investment in Spain.
“Parts of Spain are doing really well at the moment but there are two completely different markets,” said James Dearsley, European sales manager at agent Atlas International. The company has reported a significant increase in sales since November 2009.
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In an interesting move, the Spanish government has stated that there will be further investments in Spain’s road and railway infrastructure. The article was posted on the Business Week website(link below). I think this is worth mentioning on a property related blog, as better communicated regions should lead in time to a positive increase in property prices and a general betterment of the Spanish economy.
After all the recent ‘positive-ness’ about property in Spain, potential green shoots, etc… I thought this article by Mark Stucklin was quite interesting. Marbella it looks like has done quite well in this first quarter. Actually more than that, this has been the best first quarter in the last five years. Like Mr Stucklin I am also quite dubious about this information, and I will give the town hall the benefit of doubt as they have been trying to clean up Marbella and its image. Personally I think the statistics are as positive as they are due to postponed completions (due to irregularities, etc…) and probably a slight surge in property in Spain. Anyway here is the article:
Earlier today I posted an article by the Times Online, which although positive, does consist of a bunch of press releases from a variety of sources. This is not to disparage the sources, but just that they need to understood in the right context.
They became a symbol of the global housing market crash, unsold, half-built, lining the Mediterranean like skeletal relics of a bygone, more prosperous age.
But villas and apartments on the Spanish Costas are suddenly hot property again as Britain’s second-home buyers rediscover the attractions of life in southern Spain.
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Welcome to our new Costa del Sol property blog design. After a lot of work we have managed to integrate it into our main website. As you can see the design and colour scheme has changed a bit in keeping with our main site. Not much more to say that that really, hope you enjoy the new look
Regards
Andrew & the team
After several years of British (and to lesser degree Germans, Swedish, Irish, etc..) buyers having to deal with multiple issues including illegal builds, retro-active permits, coastal laws, etc… with little or no help from their home country MEPs, they are now receiving support from a variety of sources. Being cynical we could talk about looming elections or the fact that a lot of the hard has already been done. Either way everyone appears to be jumping on the band wagon and is condemning Spain for a range of property related issues, which should help speed up and resolve these issues. The latest is from Roger Helmer.
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It appears that the British government is finally attempting to do something to support British citizens in Spain. As you can expect the main issue revolved around illegal/irregular properties and the need to find a ‘voter friendly’ solution. Anyway, please find below the governmental press release.
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After finding the article the Spanish property bust, I thought it would be of interest to look at how the province of Malaga has done by comparison. Although there are no specific figures for the Costa del Sol, we can work on the assumption that has most of the population and infrastructure are along the Malaga coast, Malaga province equates with Costa del Sol in reference to property transactions.
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Many potential buyers know, or are informed by their lawyers, that you need to ask for a certificate to show that there are no debts attached to the property when buying a resale, to avoid getting landed with a bill for a backlog of owed community fees when they move in. This is the common practice on the Costa del Sol. But what about when you buy a brand new property from a developer?
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Foreign property owners in Spain still suffering from irregular planning issues on rustic/rural land will be holding a gathering/march in Malaga on the 17th of March to protest the ongoing issues that are plaguing their properties.
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Political battle lines are being drawn in Mijas over the 700 properties in the Calahonda Royale development. Home owners in the urbanisation, which is located near the Mijas Costa/Marbella border, just north of the N340, have been waiting for over a decade to be granted the first occupancy licence, ‘licencia de primera ocupacíon.’
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More than half of Spain’s landlords are dodging taxes as the rental market expands, depriving the financially strapped government of more revenue each year.
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I recently had a discussion with a buyer who after reading from a variety of sources, which I am happy to say included my blog, thought that property prices along the Costa del Sol would be vastly lower than the reality due to the 1 million unsold newly built properties. Unfortunately all this talk of huge number of unsold properties has hidden certain important realities that few seem to be talking about.
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